CRITIC'S CHOICE/Pop CD's

Machismo In Rap Atop The Charts

By JON PARELES

Published: November 26, 1996

Snoop Doggy Dogg

Snoop Doggy Dogg raps about his white Rolls-Royce, his pit bulls, his groupies, his pals, his gun and his imitators on his second album, ''The Doggfather'' (Death Row/Interscope). It has been four years since the release of his debut album, ''Doggystyle,'' and nine months since his acquittal on charges in a 1993 murder. In the meantime, Snoop Doggy Dogg (born Calvin Broadus) has rapped on soundtrack albums, compilations and as a guest rapper with his cronies, Tha Dogg Pound. His presence virtually guarantees a spot in the Top 10.

Although ''Doggystyle'' sold five million copies, Snoop Doggy Dogg couldn't copy its formula. The producer who introduced him to the public, Dr. Dre, has severed ties with Death Row Records; instead, various Dogg Pound members produced the music on ''The Doggfather.'' And while Snoop Doggy Dogg repeatedly compares himself to Don Corleone, he has moved away from street-level gangster action.

The album has a few obligatory mentions of sexual exploits and gun-toting, usually delegated to guest rappers. But most of the raps are about his position as a hit-maker: ''This rap game's meant to make money.''

He still has one of the most distinctive deliveries in rap: a casual, nasal, conversational tone that sounds leisurely even when he's barreling forward. His producers are a little less slick than Dr. Dre was, but they have supplied swampy bass riffs and catchy backup choruses, drawing heavily (like Dr. Dre) on George Clinton's P-Funk. ''All I want to to is make the whole crowd bounce,'' Snoop Doggy Dogg insists, and ''The Doggfather'' does that, maintaining a party atmosphere. Yet while it insists that gangsta rap isn't dead, it plays down tough-guy tales in favor of a star's pronouncements.

Mo Thugs

To inaugurate their own label, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony have assembled ''Family Scriptures'' (Mo Thugs/Relativity), a sampler of talent from their hometown, Cleveland. Like Bone Thugs' million-selling hit single ''Tha Crossroads,'' most of the songs on ''Family Scriptures'' are slow and elegiac, with raps punctuated by church-choir choruses and lyrics about struggling in the ghetto. ''Can't put trust in the system so I gotta hustle to survive,'' the group II Tru chants. Since the rappers don't want to sound like goody-goodies, they flaunt profanities, gunfire, remembered violence and reflexive sexism.

The album's commercial lure is the presence of Bone Thugs members on the album's best tracks. Krayzie Bone raps and sings a track that unites two songs with a shotgun blast, and the label's roster performs together in three elaborate, quick-changing songs by the Mo Thugs Family. But on their own, most of the other acts don't sound ready for national exposure.

Lil' Kim

Lil' Kim has emerged from the Notorious BIG's retinue with an ever-commercial image: a sexually voracious ''gangstress.'' Her raps on ''Hardcore'' (Big Beat/Atlantic), including the hit single ''No Time,'' are three-quarters explicit come-on, one-quarter threat; between her songs, rappers of both sexes make their own propositions. The backup tracks are pure East Coast style: dense, ominous, minor-key riffs with an undercurrent of dancehall reggae. Like male gangsta rappers, Lil' Kim flaunts materialism and alludes to violence, but most of her raps are single-mindedly raunchy; in ''Dreams,'' she fantasizes about sex with everyone from Prince to the Harlem Boys Choir. Lil' Kim insists on getting her own satisfaction, but she doesn't battle gangsta-rap machismo; she joins the fantasy.